Fort Dawnguard is the headquarters of the Dawnguard, an order of vampire hunters (Dawnguard). It sits hidden deep in the Velothi Mountains of the Rift near the Morrowind border, and the only way in is through Dayspring Canyon, north of Stendarr’s Beacon. Whether you sign up with Isran or come back later as his enemy, this castle is central to the whole Dawnguard storyline.
What you’ll find
- A big circular main lobby hung with Dawnguard banners, with hallways branching off to every important room on the ground floor.
- A dining hall with a huge fireplace and two cooking spits, plus a storage area and a side room with a map of Skyrim on a desk.
- A crafting wing with an arcane enchanter, alchemy lab, forge, grindstone and workbench, and a smelter and tanning rack one level down. The forge, enchanter and alchemy lab only become usable once you have joined and finished A New Order and Bolstering the Ranks.
- A cave section behind the smithy where Gunmar keeps his armored trolls in a wooden pen, along with archery targets.
- Barracks with cots for most of the hunters, a training cavern with dummies and a dog pen, and the passage on to Dead Drop Falls.
- Upstairs: Isran’s room, which grows into a proper master bedroom with wardrobes and a mannequin as the story advances, and a rather grim torture room full of bones and old blood.
- Three rooftop areas with bedrolls, chests, weapon racks, a tanning rack and a grindstone.
- Residents include recruits and hunters such as Agmaer, Durak and Mogrul, several of whom can become followers, while Ollrod, Tilde and Vori patrol the outer walls.
Quests
The fort is the hub of the Dawnguard main questline. Siding with Isran after Bloodline turns it into your home base; during A New Order and Prophet the approach gets fortified with guarded wooden walls and the fast travel point moves right up to the doors. Pick the vampire side instead and the Dawnguard members here become enemies.
Notable items
- Skill book 2920, vol 01 – Morning Star, beside a bedroll on the northwestern balcony tower.
- The Lusty Argonian Maid on the roof, plus The Talos Mistake and an Amulet of Talos on barrels near the entrance-side rooftop.
- Loose Dawnguard armor pieces on the roofs, and steel ingots and bolts in the master bedroom.
Tips
The trainers make this a superb skill-up stop: Isran teaches Heavy Armor, Gunmar Smithing, Florentius Baenius Restoration and Sorine Jurard Archery, all at master level. Those three merchants carry the Master Trader perk bonus, and Florentius accepts an investment. An armored troll costs 500 gold to hire, which is honestly a bargain for a bodyguard that hits like a landslide.
Good to know
Back in the Second Era a Jarl of Riften built the fort to quarantine his own son after he caught vampirism, hiring mercenaries called the Dawnguard to keep him in. Accounts differ on how that ended, but the fort eventually fell to ruin until Isran restored it, just as the Volkihar attack on the Hall of the Vigilant gave his order new purpose.
Details checked against community wiki articles and the Skyrim/Dawnguard game files, summarised in our own words.
